Native American Settlers

Like many encounters with differencing people, the relationships between the Wichita Confederation and incoming tribes begin in an adversarial light. As the text states, the Wichita have held this territory for half a millennium (Baird, 50). The waves of incoming tribes that were not in their loosely related “cousin” tribes is looked upon as an invasion and competition for resources. While some of the relations turn into a cooperative, other relations maintain a continual hostile overlay. Despite the common misconception of all Native Americans fit under a generic umbrella of commonality, each tribe/subdivision of a tribe, have their own distinct identity and custom. The migration of differencing tribes can be compared to France walking into Switzerland to claim it as theirs. This “invasion” here begins with the movements of two tribes of the Apache, the Lipans and the Ka-Ta-kas. While the Wichita manages to push the Lipans south, the Ka-Ta-kas, with the friendship of the well-resourced Kiowa, are able to establish a foothold in the region despite the opposition from the Wichita. This relationship, during this period of time, is contentious one at best (Baird, 50).

Fresh from their raids of the Spanish settlements, the Comanches are well equipped and not reliant on friendships of other tribes for important weaponry and horses. Raids on the Wichita all the way to the Cross Timber Region ultimately leads to Comanche control the Southern Plain region (Baird, 50). These raids see hostility between the two tribes for close to fifty years. After the recognition that there was a mutual benefit in a relationship between the accomplished farmers of the Wichita and the skilled hunters of the Comanche the relations turn to one of trade and friendship (Baird,